1986: Jumpin?Jack Flash. 1988: Big. 1990: Awakenings (+ co-executive producer). 1992: A League of Their Own (+ executive producer). 1994: Renaissance Man (+ co-executive producer). 1996: The Preacher?s Wife. 2000: Time Tunnel: The Movie.
Films as Actress: 1968: The Savage Seven (Rush) (as Tina); How Sweet It Is! (Paris) (as tour girl). 1970: The Grasshopper (Paris) (as Plaster Caster). 1971: The Feminist and the Fuzz (Paris?for TV). 1972: Evil Roy Slade (Paris?for TV) (as bankteller); The Crooked Hearts (J. Sandrich?for TV); The Couple Takes a Wife (Paris?for TV). 1975: How Come Nobody?s on Our Side? (Michaels) (as Theresa); Let?s Switch (Rafkin?for TV). 1978: More than Friends (Burrows?for TV). 1979: 1941 (Spielberg) (as Miss Fitzroy). 1984: Love Thy Neighbor (Bill?for TV) (as Linda). 1985: Movers & Shakers (Asher) (as Reva); Challenge of a Lifetime (Mayberry?for TV). 1991: The Hard Way (Badham) (as Angie). 1993: Hocus Pocus (Ortega). 1995: Get Shorty (Sonnenfeld) (as herself).
1960s?began acting, appearing in stock productions; 1967-68?network acting debut on The Danny Thomas Hour; 1970?auditioned unsuccessfully for the role of Gloria on the television sitcom All in the Family; 1971-75?initially attracted notice for recurring role as Jack Klugman?s secretary on TV?s The Odd Couple; 1970s?acted on television series, including The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, Mork and Mindy, and Happy Days; 1976?became a television star on Laverne & Shirley; late 1970s-1980s?directed commercials, several episodes of Laverne & Shirley, two episodes of The Tracey Ullman Show, and TV pilot Working Stiffs; 1985?made stage debut in off-Broadway play Eden Court; 1986?directed first feature, Jumpin? Jack Flash; 1990?signed a three-picture
New York City, 15 October 1942 (some sources say 1943).
Attended the University of New Mexico, majored in math and psychology.
Married 1) Michael Henry (divorced), one daughter, Tracy; 2) the actor/director Rob Reiner, 1971 (divorced 1979).
Had Penny Marshall not had show business connections?she is the younger sister of director-producer-writer Garry Marshall?she might not have been allowed the opportunities she received first as an actress, then as a director. But this can be said for any second- or third-generation Hollywood name, from Bridges to Fonda, Carradine to Sheen. Besides, had Marshall lacked the requisite abilities, her career might not have flourished as it has in both venues. Marshall has become one of a generation of actors?Ron Howard and Rob Reiner, her former husband, are others who come to mind?who first earned popularity as stars of television situation comedies, and then went on to forge major careers behind the cameras.
Marshall cut her teeth as an actress, appearing first in a handful of features and made-for-television movies, then in a quartet of television situation comedies: The Odd Couple (as Myrna Turner, 1971-75, co-produced by brother Garry); The Bob Newhart Show (as Miss Larson, 1972-73); Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers (as Janice Dreyfuss, 1974-75); and, most notably, Laverne & Shirley (as Laverne De Fazio, 1976-83, co-created and produced by brother Garry), a spin-off of Happy Days. The success of the latter made Marshall a household name. In 1978 she co-starred with Reiner in More than Friends, a made-for-television romantic comedy based on their courtship.
Marshall initially began directing episodes of Laverne & Shirley. Her feature-film directorial debut, Jumpin? Jack Flash, was inauspicious: one of Whoopi Goldberg?s pitifully unfunny post-Color Purple fiascos. More recently, Marshall made Renaissance Man, an overlong (at 129 minutes), generic comedy about an advertising man (Danny DeVito) who finds himself suddenly unemployed, and accepts a job tutoring a bunch of none-too-bright Army recruits. In between, however, Marshall made a trio of popular features that firmly established her as a leading Hollywood director. Each is a commercially viable film that combines solid entertainment value with a humanistic, life-affirming story line.
Big is by far the best in a string of late 1980s fantasy-comedies (including Like Father, Like Son; Vice Versa; and 18 Again!) which are variations on the same theme: the souls of young people are transferred into the bodies of their elders (and vice versa). Big is the story of a preteen boy who, like many kids, wishes he were older. Miraculously, this request is granted?and the boy, now trapped in the body of a man almost three times his age, is thrust into the adult world. The adult is played by Tom Hanks, giving a performance which earned him his first Academy Award nomination and solidified his status as an A-list movie star. The based-on-fact Awakenings features superlative performances by Robin Williams (as Oliver Sacks, a reticent research doctor working in a hospital ward which houses the chronically ill) and Robert De Niro (as a patient who awakens from a 30-year coma). A League of Their Own mixes fiction with fact as it tells the story of the trailblazing women athletes who played professional baseball in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during the 1940s and 1950s.
Along with fellow television refugees Reiner and Howard, Marshall has been able to entertain audiences while making them think and feel: an impressive accomplishment in an era dominated by crass, in-your-face, assembly-line Hollywood product.?